


Jason Todd was Dead

by anakatieskywalker



Series: A Stranger World [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League (2017), Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Gen, Jason Todd is Alive, Jason Todd is Dead, Justice League Spoilers...?, no editing we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 04:26:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anakatieskywalker/pseuds/anakatieskywalker
Summary: His name was Jason.Victor is the only member of the team who doesn't cast nervous glances at the suit preserved in the corner of the cave. He grew up in Gotham, he knew of the untimely dead of Jason Todd and the consequential disappearance of Robin.And then the Red Hood came along.





	Jason Todd was Dead

His name is Jason.

 

It’s a mantra that rings in his head, the only thing he really knows as he claws himself out of the ground, fingers splintered and bleeding. The fancy suit he’s wearing is now ruined, the grass is damp, and it is dark, but his name is Jason.

 

His name is Jason, but he calls out something else when his eyes snap open for the first time in a year.

 

“Bruce.”

 

His name is Jason, and he leaves the graveyard in the dead of night.

_

 

Of all of the people on the team, it’s Victor that doesn’t cast a nervous glance at the suit hanging in the cave. Maybe it’s because he’s from Gotham, and he knows the stories. He knows of the disappearance of Robin, and the untimely death of Bruce Wayne’s adopted son Jason Todd. Maybe it’s because Vic is connected to the world’s computer systems, and while he would never intentionally do it unprompted, he can access all of Bruce’s files. Including the video that the Joker had sent him of his son’s final hours.

 

Victor does his best to steer away from the topic of Robin, but as he lives in Gotham, he hears about the rise of the Red Hood.

 

He hears about the rise of the Red Hood, and his system does the rest. He’s pulling warehouse cams that shouldn’t be working anymore, they’re so outdated, and he gets images of the Red Hood pulling off that helmet in agitation.

 

Victor gets the images & immediately starts running facial recognition against all that he has access to, including Batman’s files. He doesn’t really have a plan, beyond gathering information. He’ll probably just forward it over to Bruce and let the Bat do his job.

 

That’s what he thinks, until he gets a hit.

 

It’s been a long time, a really long time, Vic knows this. The kid has been dead for years, so the match has to be wrong. Victor also knows what this would do to Bruce if he sent this over to him, and he wasn’t absolutely positive. He knows that Bruce hasn’t come to terms with his role in his son’s death based on the suit hanging in the cave, and how viciously he avoids the topic.

So he digs further, and finds a conveniently placed security camera in the cemetery. Vic knows that it is only reviewed in the case of grave robbers, but the footage is still consistently catalogued, and it goes back for years. He sets to work.

_

 

It’s about a week later when the team reconvenes. He has known for days at this point, known that he was not wrong, that he never has been. Vic waits until everyone is there before entering the cave, he knows he’s going to need a buffer. He knows that he’s going to shatter Bruce’s world, along old fault lines. He knows he may not be forgiven for this knowledge, and he knows that every day he goes without sharing the information, the more damage the Red Hood does.

 

“Bruce.” He calls as soon as he sets foot in the cave, everyone is here, and they have business to get to, but if Victor doesn’t break the news now, he won’t for the rest of the meeting. “We need to talk.”

 

Everyone is looking up at him, looking some form of concerned. Vic has never been so abrupt in their meetings. Bruce’s eyebrow is raised. “The Red Hood, his name is Jason.” He pauses for a moment, there’s still some room for him to back out, to save Bruce from the horrible truth he’s about to lay on him. Victor plows on anyway, “His name is Jason Todd.”

 

The others look on, confused, and Bruce pales, but only slightly. “That’s not possible.” Bruce’s voice is quiet, but no one else has made a sound, and so it rings through the cave.

 

“I wouldn’t be telling you this if I wasn’t absolutely sure it was true.” Victor isn’t as assertive as he was before, because he knows what this means, what it means for Bruce’s past, and the weight that is added by him making the announcement. He is well aware of the fact that he escaped the fate of Jason Todd, by the grace of his father, that they had been the same age. He can remember the other boy, who carried books in his back pocket, and absorbed his education like a sponge, as he turned around to beat the pulp out of those that insulted his humble beginnings.

 

“Jason Todd is Dead.” Bruce says, and it had a certain finality to it that Vic hadn’t been expecting, like it was something Bruce told himself every day as he looked in the mirror.

 

“He was.” Victor counters, because he’d reviewed it all, several times. He even read through the autopsy report, and the report Batman wrote for his own files, of what really happened. Jason had died, it was certified, real and true, heart stopped, body gone cold. Vic would have a hard time getting the autopsy images to leave his mind for a while, but they were accompanied by the footage of Jason Todd climbing out of his own grave a year after he had been buried.

 

It didn’t make sense, but it was real.

 

Jason Todd was not dead.


End file.
